DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL

...You just got home from work; and it's time to catch up on the latest episode of "Game of Thrones."

It's all the CRAZE now; EVERYONE's talking about it! Do you WANT to be left out of the conversation?

...Yeah; I'm good.

I don't need "Netflix and Chill;" I have "DVD Collection and RELIVE."

You can keep your "Game of Thrones" or "Stranger Things" or "Mandalorian" or flash-in-the-pan pop craze.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some childhood friends to revisit.

DVD/BLU-RAY PLAYER, SHOW ME "GAME OF ETERNIA/ETHERIA."

...You just went to Google that in case you were missing something and the joke's on you. I apologize.

Let's try this again.

"DVD shelf, show me..."

"HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE"/ "SHE-RA..."

Scoff if you will. "An ADULT MAN watching cartoons! Who's he going to act COOL in front of? How will people know that he's hip to all of the COOL shows?"

I'm 36; and single. "Cool" no longer has to factor into anything.

This is NOT a 36 year old fan boy having discovered "Filmation" and believing that it's something FRESH and NEW (those would be viewers of NETFLIX "She-Ra;" not that there's anything wrong with them either). This is me staying up to date with my "childhood friends" that I first "met" at the age of at least three in 1987 (if not TWO and in 1986. That EXACT part is a little bit fuzzy).

Okay; like any other 80's kid (many of whom were a little older than TWO when they discovered these), I was sucked into the MOTU craze. I had to have the toys! I needed VHSs to wear out when "He-Man" WASN'T on TV at the time! Honestly, it could be said that this set me on the path to creative writing when, at the age of four and STILL watching these now "guilty" tropes, I would turn and scribble out EXTRA adventure stories when the established ones didn't have my attention!

THE OTHER GUYS...

I'm a grown man now and of course I don't binge He-Man and She-Ra every night, EVERY week. No; that's why I also own "Bravestarr," "G.I. Joe: ARAH," "Silverhawks," "Filmation's Ghostbusters [in speaking of guilty pleasures, I was supposed to be ashamed of preferring THAT Ghostbusters when I was still a CHILD and FIRST watching it]", "Fat Albert," "Thundercats," "Blackstar," "Thundarr," "Galtar and the Golden Lance," "The Centurions," "M.A.S.K.," and at least the first three seasons of MMPR (up until "...Zeo") on DVD (Now, I'm imagining one giant crossover between He-Man, She-Ra, Lion-O [Thundercats], Blackstar, Thundarr, Galtar, and their respective allies and enemies. For this to work, it would need to be a HUGE story arc, possibly spanning an entire SEASON in serial style. You guessed it; yeah, I'd watch that nonsense requiring the collaboration of Filmation, Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, AND Lorimar together. Yeah; it WOULDN'T happen. And if I wrote it, there'd be a whole lot of copyright problems pending)...

...WHODUNNIT? (Guest starring four-five cookie cutter kids and an anthropomorphic sidekick).

"Didn't all of that VIOLENCE put you to shame in your YOUTH?"

...The "FILMATION" shows used moral segments; for 30 seconds a piece.

Okay, fair enough.

I DID neglect to mention the DVD shelf set aside for the Scooby-Doo companion series' from "...Where Are You?" through "The Scooby-Doo Show" (the ones that I would willfully watch when I was young [Oh; that shelf also has "Josie...," "Clue Club," "Speed Buggy," and "Jabberjaw."])

Again, I saw THESE first between "U.S.A.'s Cartoon Express" and "Cartoon Network" back when it was broadcasting what it was originally INTENDED for. It's not like I'm grown now and FIRST introducing myself to these through the eyes of an ADULT; I can still see them through the eyes of a child. (Again, I don't watch them ALL OF THE TIME. In fact, the last one of them I watched was a couple of episodes of "Josie...;" and THAT must have been three weeks ago).

LAUGH-A-MINUTE

Even I'LL admit that I'm grown now; CARTOONS of the past can only fulfill so much (even if I do enjoy sitting around and being able to quote along with certain episodes by now).

...I'm a big fan of comedies.

"COMEDIES! Great! Like MODERN FAMILY and THE GOLDBERGS and STRANGER THINGS! They're funn...!"

..."I'm a big fan of my Mr. Ed, Full House, and Step By Step DVDs; occasionally Andy Griffith too."

"Ohhhhhh..."

I was making TV viewing memories at my loving grandmother's house as she watched my sister and I while our parents worked (partially ALSO why I can't let go of these old series, with the advent of DVD). I was three when I was introduced to a certain talking horse; of course, of course. At three (maybe four), I couldn't read a clock yet; my cartoon day was over when it got decidedly darker out and I heard "...HELLO; I'M MR. ED!"

Then, between "Full House" and "Step By Step," I'm looking back at these now, barely remembering "Step By Step" from my youth. Yeah; to PREFER the mostly-all-but-forgotten "Step By Step" over "Full House" which earned INFINITE reruns between Fox, TBS, ABC Family, and Nick-at-Nite just might be called a "Guilty Pleasure." So be it.

GUILTY OF IGNORING...

"...OMG; is there ANYTHING that you won't watch now as an ADULT now??"

Sure. Believe it or not, I was guilty of NOT WATCHING some popular franchises in 80s animation!

I watched "G.I. Joe" religiously to go along with my figures; but all but ignored "The Transformers" ("The Gobots" on "U.S.A. Cartoon Express," however, were treated as watchable).

I liked maybe two episodes of "The Smurfs;" but LOVED "The Paw Paws/Paw Paw Bears." (The theme song and title card disagree with one another).

When I sensed TMNT starting to come on, it was time to enjoy a great theme song; then pop in a "He-Man..." VHS.

"The Real Ghostbusters" was realistically more successful, thanks to the film franchise; I always PREFERRED "Filmation's Ghostbusters," based on the comedy from the '70s (The one with the genius-level gorilla. "LET'S GOHHH, GHOHHHST-BUSTERS!" THAT one).

The opinions of my childhood still stand today...

REALITY

To this day, all of the talk is about "The Bachelor/Bachelorette" (But at least we're done talking about "Flava of Love" or "Rock of Love," if each time a celebrity suitor found "the one," it needed to last ANOTHER season after that).

...and I'm over here actually enjoying reruns of old favorite episodes of MTV's "Parental Control" and wondering when IT can join my DVD collection (for all of the obvious reasons, that's wishful thinking).

Guilty pleasure viewing/binging comes back to my DVD collection, with my actual TV service being reduced to "Watters World" or "The Greg Gutfeld Show." (Compared to what else I could watch from the 24 hour news networks, I won't view these as "Guilty" shows).

In speaking of admittedly guilty binging, I just wrapped up a week of my personal favorite MMPR episodes from its seasons throughout the 90s when I would have originally watched them, and I'm in a rut. I might just have to go back to "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" again (Yes, the DVD's, naturally, kept the Billy Cosby scene transitions intact as nothing was proven definite about him YET at the time that the discs came out. Yeah; life lessons from the Bill Cosby of lore almost NEED to be viewed through the eyes of a child remembering first watching these on "U.S.A." It doesn't make the CHARACTER of "Fat" Albert Johnson any less iconic).

See you later...